CLEVELAND, Ohio - "Viva" is a story you've seen before. Sensitive, gay son misunderstood by macho, overbearing father. They can't get along, but they still love each other. Son wants to impress father. Father can't see son for who he really is.

But you haven't seen this familiar story told like this before. "Viva," made by Irish director Paddy Breathnach but set in Havana and filmed completely in Spanish, tells the story of creative, sensitive 18-year-old Jesus (a wonderfully vulnerable Hector Medina). He's the wig hairdresser for a troupe of drag queens, but he dreams of being onstage himself.

One day, he gets his chance - only to get punched in the face by a member of the audience as he is belting out the torchy 1950s number he so loves.

His father, Angel (a brusque, but also vulnerable Jorge Perugorria), has returned and is ashamed of how his son is living his life. Jesus hasn't seen his father, a former star boxer, since he was 3, but is still swayed by the once-great man's faded power and magnetism.

He wants to please his now down-and-out-dad, and invites him into his crumbling apartment in a bustling Havana slum. He goes so far as even giving up his dreams of performing to please his prodigal father. Even Mama (Luis Albert Garcia), the queen bee of the drag queens, can't convince him to leave the father who's trying to force him to be something he's not.

Jesus, alone in the world except for his dad and quasi-prostitute friend Cecilia, wants so badly to make this family relationship work that he's willing to sacrifice everything that makes him happy.

He can't make a living doing old ladies' hair, though, and when Angel fails to find work as a boxing coach, the two become so destitute they lack even food. Will Angel allow his son to finally be himself, even if just to support them? Will Jesus break free of his father's iron grip? Can the two stubborn men find common ground?

When it's revealed Angel is keeping a secret and has returned for a reason, easy resolutions are thrown into doubt. Like the rest of "Viva" - Jesus' stage name, which also means "live long" - the ending is messy and sad and also full of joy. Jesus and Angel may be doing a familiar dance, but the actors imbue them with genuine pathos and vulnerabilities and, yes, life.

The surrounding Havana streets and slums and their elegantly faded buildings are gorgeously filmed in "Viva" - they're as much a star as the actors. Every scene is a frame-worthy picture. In a neorealist film, this might trivialize the characters' genuine poverty. But the stunning look is fitting in this ovation-earning melodrama.